Coffee miso lemon yubeshi

Recipe

16 Jan

Written By R&D by Kim Wejendorp; words by Eliot Beeby, with Josh Evans

This is part of our series on upcycling coffee and fruit & veg by-products. Kim developed this recipe for his presentation at the Baltic Gastro Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in May 2025. Read the essay we adapted his presentation into here.

Table of Contents

*Coffee miso lemon yubeshi, thinly sliced and served with walnuts*

i. Introduction

Traditionally, yubeshi is a sweet or savoury treat made by stuffing yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit) with a mixture of miso and sticky rice flour and ageing it for up to a year. It’s then sliced thinly and eaten as a snack, or added to soups or salads.

Here, we use juiced lemon halves and our spent coffee miso to make a yubeshi-inspired snack.

ii. Recipe

Ingredients

5 whole lemons, halved and juiced (10 halves total)
100g spent coffee miso
50g buckwheat flour
50g glutinous rice flour
50g brown sugar
20g white sugar
15g mirin
45g lemon juice (fresh or reserved from the lemons)
40g walnuts, toasted and roughly broken

Method

Scoop out the juiced flesh and as much pith as possible from each lemon half, taking care not to pierce the skin. Any holes may cause the filling to leak during steaming.
Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. If the miso mixture is too stiff, add a few more drops of lemon juice or water.
Spoon the miso mixture into the hollowed lemon halves, spreading evenly against the inner walls. Leave about 1 cm of space from the rim—do not pack tightly, as the filling will expand during steaming.
Arrange the filled lemon halves cut side up, using foil to keep them level (see image below), in a steamer basket over gently boiling water (medium-low heat) and steam for 40 minutes. Alternatively, steam in a combi oven.
While still warm, press two halves together to re-form whole lemons. The filling should have expanded enough to help them stick together. Let cool completely.
Wrap each lemon in cheesecloth and hang in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place for at least 3 months, or up to 1 year. Check occasionally for mould. If mould appears, wash and dry the lemons, steam for 20 minutes, and rehang.
Once aged, unwrap and slice thinly to serve.

iii. Adaptations

You could try adapting this recipe to use the skins of different types of juiced citrus fruits that have been stuffed with different types of miso, which could be upcycled, like our BSG miso or pumpkin skin miso, or a more traditional miso if you prefer.

Contributions & acknowledgements

Kim performed the original culinary research and photographed the process, developing this recipe for his talk at the Baltic Gastro Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in May 2025. Eliot wrote the article in discussion with Kim, with contributions and editorial feedback from Josh.

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